Midway Acquires Justice League of America

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The superhero team is no match for the videogame giant, so they're going to work together.

By IGN

Midway Games Inc. today, in the industry-wide, phoenix-like hunger to snag rights to comic book characters, acquired the rights to publish games based on the DC Comics' Justice League of America comic book and animated series characters for current consoles and Game Boy Advance.

The bountiful Justice League of America (JLA) license puts Midway in competition with several other publishers who have made, or are making, comic book heroes into a revitalized videogame force these days. Leading the pack is Activision with the respectable Spider-Man license (also the X-Men, Blade, Iron Man, and Fantastic Four licenses), followed by Ubi Soft (Batman), THQ (Captain America, The Punisher, and Nick Fury), TDK (Aquaman), Encore (Daredevil), and others.

What's significant about Midway's comic book coupe, is that the JLA features several of DC's all-time, most popular heroes and villains, and happens to be one of the top 10 best selling comics book year and year out. The fat roster stars core team members Batman, Superman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Hawkgirl and Aquaman. JLA enemies include The Joker, Lex Luthor, Mongul, Cheetah, Solomon Grundy, The Shade, Star Sapphire, Copperhead, Gorilla Grodd, Felix Faust and The Manhunter Robots.

"DC Comics' compelling characters and storylines create unique properties that are ideal for the videogame experience," said Helene Sheeler, Vice President of Marketing, Midway. "We look forward to bringing these iconic characters to gamers everywhere."

Midway's agreement with DC enables the videogame company to publish both games based on the Justice League of America comic book series and the animated series. The deal states that Midway can publish at least one game based on the DC Comics' comic book series JLA and another game based on the current Cartoon Network hit animated series, Justice League.

DC Comics created The Justice League of America, the first group to star in a comic book, in 1940, and called it Justice Society of America. The series ran until 1951. The series was revived as the Justice League of America in 1960, and then became the longest-running comic book-based TV series under Hanna-Barbera under the name of Super Friends in 1973. The series was renamed several times, to The All-New Super Friends (1977), Challenge of the Super Friends (1978), The World's Greatest Super Friends (1979) and The Super Friends Hour (1980).

"The videogame platforms are a perfect fit for the ever-popular Justice League super heroes as their interactive adventures will reach new and existing fans," said Philippe Erwin, Vice President of Interactive Entertainment for Warner Bros. Consumer Products. "We look forward to working with Midway's experienced developers to create engaging and entertaining games."

Cartoon Network debuted the Warner Bros. Animation-produced series, Justice League on November 17, 2001, and DC Comics' Justice League Adventures, the comic book tie-in, also debuted in November 2001.